Liu Che/Zhuli wrote:Chief Counselor Zhong Lang:
Indeed, Mr. Philander is correct in saying that, by upholding current Kalistani laws, Kalistan is not interfering in Baltusian affairs. What I stated, was that the contact between the Kalistani government and Mr. Benn, a politically controversial figure who had just undergone a trial in Baltusia was poor diplomacy and could be seen as meddling. What should have happened is that the government of Kalistan ignore Mr. Benn's contact, simply allowing him to move to Kalistan. That would, the government of Kalistan would be viewed as less meddlesome from a Baltusian viewpoint. Certainly, if an Indralan individual who had been tried for heinous crimes against the people of Indrala fled to Kalistan to take advantage of their citizenship, the Indralan government would be most upset. So, at the end of the day, we see this issue from both sides and pin the incident on a lack of mutual respect for one another's sovereignty, even if it was merely a momentary lapse in respect. However, this goes to show how much respect is needed between the two countries, making some sort of agreement to avoid these incidents at the government and at the level of political party necessary. Neither Kalistan or Baltusia has the authority to pass laws that can or should be enforced upon any other nation. Both are sovereign entities.
Regardless of no request from the parties, the parties, who are part of the Kalistani government and legislature, should not be engaging in actions that risk escalating diplomatic disputes towards violence. I understand Kalistan is a unique nation and is proud of their culture. That is not a bad thing, oftentimes it is more good than not. However, restraint and prudence should be upheld. Such a situation currently exists regarding Kalistani piracy in the Anantanese Ocean, which, as both Kalistan and Indrala know, led to war. A similar situation could exist regarding Kalistani paramilitaries, at least in cases where Kalistani diplomacy is at stake.
OOC: On the RP Accord, I always think it is a good idea to accept it to better ensure a degree of realism that is actually enforceable. I think Baltusia does not necessarily have to sign on to it (that is up to the players), but seeing as Kalistan and Indrala are both part of it, the precepts of the Accord and the RP Team are going to be held, at least de-facto.
Points Noted. I suppose it is not germane to correct the Mediator, but a couple of things need to be made clear.
1) Mr. Benn's contact was not with the Government of Kalistan strictly speaking. I don't much care what Mr. Benn thought: His contact was with our President, and representatives of the Labour Party. If he claimed asylum, it was the Head of State in person, and not the Government of Kalistan which worked with him on that matter. The SP is involved because the Premier is a Socialist and the SP and LP are political allies within Kalistan. But there was nothing official coming from the Government of Kalistan, as such, granting Mr. Benn asylum on any formal level. That said, our laws allow all those who move to Kalistan to claim citizenship. I suppose this is what Mr. Benn did which would make him ineligible for extradition. If, indeed we had such a policy. But we extradite nobody. This business about which country he belongs to is made moot by him crossing into Kalistani National territory. We will not extradite him, because we cannot. We do have the power to make him personna non grata and kick him out of the country, but that is unlikely now, given the proceedings. So the choices before us is, he stays where he is, or Baltusia violates Kalistani Sovereignty and comes in and gets him themselves. If he makes himself notorious on Kalistani soil and is not a citizen, we will simply deport him. But if he claims citizenship, he is eligible for Kalistani justice.
So it is not the Government of Kalistan which sanctions his continued living in Kalistan. The official position of the Government is that Kalistan does not extradite. All of this other stuff is ancillary to the discussion the Premier of Kalistan sent me to engage in. If Mr. Benn violates our laws, and is not a citizen, we will deport him. If he is a citizen, he will not be returning to Baltusia. We would apologize for Baltusia's feeling upset over the matter, but our laws are the only ones that matter to the Government of Kalistan- No other countries in the world may as well exist when it comes to what goes on within the state of Kalistan.
2) Th RSMoK's actions were seen as escalation, though we can assure this entire conference, at least for RSMoK's part, this was not at all our intention. We operate freely on Kalistani soil and within Kalistani waters. I am sure the Indralan Government will agree with us that the Piracy issue is a rather touchy subject and we have complied with our part of the arrangement to officially condemn piracy within the Anantanese Ocean. We have been a good partner with Indrala in enforcement of non-support of Piracy in the waters, and have explicitly only authorized letters of marque during times of national emergency. We would prefer to separate that issue out from this discussion, if you do not mind.
The Militias are an important auxiliary to Kalistan's Regular forces, and we need to ensure that we are trained to standards higher than those set by most regular militaries, so that we may be effective Partisans. I am sure I do not need to remind our Indralan friends that our Partisans are highly effective- the only way we obtain that is by remaining activated and through training. This requires periodic training exercises, and the SP's militia took the LP's military maneuvers as an opportunity to enhance our training, and to work with our Comrades in the PA. That this was seen as military escalation by the Baltusians, and clearly by the Indralans, is rather troubling to us. I say this because under no circumstances did our activities approach the borders of Baltusia- we remained entirely within the borders of Kalistan, where we should be allowed to operate without the concern of other Governments.
On this matter, the Counselor will be happy to know that the RSMoK's part in the PA's operations is coming to the end of the cycle. We cannot speak for the People's Army, but the RSMoK partisans will be deploying to the rear. Baltusia should not read this as de-escalation any more than they should have read our participation as escalation. It is merely the end of the operation for the RedLegs.
I would hope that we focus going forward not on how to get Mr. Benn back, or whether or not Kalistani Partisans should be allowed to freely operate on Kalistani National soil, but on how to actually resolve the dispute between the Government of Kalistan and the Government of Baltusia.